Welcome
the the home page of the
Maetreum
of Cybele, Magna Mater!

The first version of this
webpage appeared almost 20 years ago.
Since that time it underwent one name change, a tonnes of
additions and today we find that we badly need to reconstruct it so
that new seekers and old can more easily access the essential elements
and still be able to delve deeply if the spirit moves. Hi,
I'm
Cathryn Platine, the principle founder of the Cybeline Revival.
When I first started our revival in 1997 there were precious
few
references to Cybele at all outside a few scholarly works with limited
access, two websites by Laura Seabrook and Laura Lansberry and a few
scattered essays from magazines almost no one ever encountered.
Cybele was not on the radar of neo-paganism at all.
A lot
has changed since then and since we held our first public ritual back
on March 24, 1999 several other groups have sprung up honouring the
Mother Goddess as Cybele, Magna Mater. Laura Lansberry died
many
years ago and her website is still maintained by one of her partners,
Julia.
Laura Seabrook came to the Phrygianum (our Convent home) in
2006,
underwent the mysteries and is one of our priestesses.

Our theology starts from the simplest basis: That the Divine
Feminine principle is the basis of the universe. That all of
us,
all that we encounter is Her in the aggregate. We are all the
Great Mother learning about Herself. From this simple
beginning
springs our organizational models, our rituals, the principles of what
we call Wholistic Feminism, our mission of charitable outreach and
indeed the way we, as Cybelines, live our lives. We are
sometimes
called the "scholarly Cybelines" because we have invested many years of
strict historical research in order to embrace the essence of what
proved to be literally the oldest surviving religion in the world.
We embraced the essence and then stepped away from "Pagan
Reconstructism" by bringing those essences into the modern world.
We re-introduced to the world a model for Pagan Monasticism.
We've recovered long believed lost principles, our drumming
patterns, ritual practices and corrected history. The world
centre of our Religion is in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York
at the foot of the Kaaterskill Clove. Unlike many neo-Pagan
groups, we have a "horizontal" organization, our Priestesses all
considered equals but also expected to live our religion, dedicate
themselves to a live of charitable works and ministry to others
according to their strengths. We welcome all to our services
and
to visit our first Phrygianum of the modern era. We do not
require anyone to renounce anything to join us.

The
section on the
Phrygianum contains basic information about our organizational models,
The Rule of the Women of Cybele and about our physical home.
The
Theology section contains our Cybeline Exegesis and basic ritual
information. Current events are posted to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Maetreum/.
The
history section contains past and current essays on our history.
The links sections contain, well, links.

We have traced Cybele back as
far as approximately 10,000 BCE
to
Central Anatolia or Turkey. It has been personally exciting
to
watch mainline historians begin to confirm things I have been writing
and lecturing about for two decades now as well as see others discover
Cybele. Our next generation of scholars are being trained, we
aim
to be around a long time and seek no less than to change the primary
worldview to one of Goddess Awareness from the current patriarchal
thinking that has taken the world to the brink of destruction..
Hundreds of thousands have read the older versions of this
website. Join us. Support our efforts for we do all
our
work, maintain our Phrygianum on a shoestring budget. We are
incoporated and a 501 (c)3 religious charity so all donations are fully
tax deductable.

Maetreum means literally "Home
of the Mother" so our
name is
translated as the Home of the Great Mother Cybele. In Roman
times
this was the official name of the various temples to Cybele and most
specifically the one located on the Palatine hill in Rome itself.
Phrygianum translates as "Home of the Phrygians".
The
Romans considered Phrygia the source of the Cybeline religion and the
home of the Phrgyians was the complex that was the Convent home of the
Cybeline Priestesses. In Rome that was located across the
Tiber
on the Vatican hill. The modern primary Phrgyianum is our
Catskills location, while it is the first such in the modern era, it
will not remain the only one long.

A special word from the
Maetreum to Goddess oriented women

Look around, the American dream is now dead and the social experiment
started in the fifties has failed.. We at the Maetreum are
attempting to create a new model of living, a community of spiritual
women working together cooperatively. We have room for
several
women to move here. We have a ceramics studio set up already
and
are acquiring the tools to spin and weave our own fabrics. We
are
planting fruit trees and gardens and grape arbors. We have a
larger family of laying hens. But in order
to
succeed in this we need Goddess women willing to join us in
our
efforts. If your life is falling apart because of the
economy,
consider a visit to see if you can join us. We need you and I
suspect, many of you need us. We welcome all genders to our services,
celebrations and for visits.
Blessing on you all,

Rev. Mother Cathryn Platine

The Maetreum wins in New York's highest court

On Nov. 18, 2014 New York Court of Appeals handed down a
decision that fully recognizes the
religious nature of the Maetreum's property.

In July of 2015 we went live on the
air 24/7 with WLPP-LP, our low powered FM community radio station
serving our entire community which we largely financed ourselves as
part of our charitable outreach.

The last Pagan Emperor of Rome and devotee of Cybele, Julian,
charged Pagans to "Be thou the one" referring to doing public works and
charity and thus providing a living example to the rest of the world.
We live by this at the Maetreum. We challenge other Pagans to follow
our example and be thou the one by coming out of their broom closets
and being open and active members of their local communities.

We have proved that if you fight the good fight for the right
reason you can prevail regardless of the odds.

Our
Women's coffee/tea
gatherings take place every Saturday at the Phrygianum in the Bell Book
and Candle Cafe from 1pm -4pm The first Saturday of the Month
is
our Goddess Meetup Group at 5pm. The second Saturday of the
Month is our Feminist Meetup Group at 5pm.

Find us on Facebook!

Some debate and misunderstandings about
our status has emerged recently. The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna
Mater Inc. is incorporated under New York Religious Incorporation
Law and is fully IRS recognized as both a church and religious
charitable organization under IRS 501 (c)(3) regulations. The
property is deeded to the Maetreum of Cybele, not any individual.
The Maetreum of Cybele has no paid staff, everything is done on a
volunteer basis. The Maetreum of Cybele is not a housing
cooperative for gender variant people. We are inclusive of all
genders but we are Goddess women who's priestesses must be fully female
identified and accepted into sisterhood by the current
priestesses. There were transsexed
priestesses in Rome but most of the priestesses of Cybele came from the
matrons
of Rome, wives of Roman citizens. As in the ancient world, our
priestesses administer to the congregants of all genders who are all
those who come to
worship and participate in ritual and celebration. All as in
everyone who wishes to do so, not just our priestesses. We
have followers all over the world, many who plan future pilgrimages
here, many who have done so already. We have a priestess in
Canada and one in Australia.

Last update: 06/11/16

copyright 2002--2016,
Cathryn Platine Maetreum
of Cybele, Magna
Mater.
All rights reserved. These pages may not be reproduced in
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or
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